Happy Valentine's Day!

I awoke this morning to the luscious aroma of fresh baked cinnamon rolls. Bill and the kids ( all bathed and ready for school ) opened the door to the bedroom with a beautiful tray filled with my favorite foods, fresh coffee and a wonderful red rose. It was after 6:00 - something I have not seen in years. It was a wonderful, peaceful morning that would have played well on any romantic movie. Then I really woke up...

It was 3:40. Steve just spit up a hair ball somewhere in my bedroom. Camryn was beside me and had just coughed and sneezed, wiped her nose on her sleeve and THEN proceeded to ask for a tissue. Once she rubbed all over my face, hair, and pillow with said arm and face, she finally reached the Kleenex box to take care of her nose. I scurried to the bathroom to wash what germs ( most likely the latest flu virus strain ) that I could off of myself. And so my day began...

Immediately Camryn said that she was going to throw up. So off to the bathroom we go where she spends about 10 minutes looking pitifully at the commode and finally says "I feel better today. I want some coke." So, what the heck, it's 4:00 a.m., I'm tired and getting the flu myself, I'll give the girl some coke. Dr. Pepper to be exact. So she sits down to enjoy her coke, cuddles up with Carly's bear and blanket, and just as we settle down and get quiet, Carly rounds the corner and begins yelling "That is MY baby!". Camryn reluctantly hands the baby to Carly, then insists that I scour the entire house in search of her baby, which is found tucked neatly in one of her purses, under the spare room bed.

It is now 4:30, I have Carly and Camryn sitting down, drinking Dr. Pepper, watching Lilo and Stitch. I'm on a mission to open a new box of tissue and then I hear a very whiny "I want some coke, too" coming from a not-nearly-awake Dylan who has parked himself between the girls on the couch. Out to the cold garage I go to retrieve another Dr. Pepper from the beverage-fridge. Once back inside, I get Dylan his coke, hand the tissues to Cami and proceed to get another load of laundry going.

As I finish starting the next load of laundry, Cami comes around the corner with a mostly-eaten laffy taffy asking me to unwrap it the rest of the way. I soon find out that she and Carly were sitting on the couch "sharing" the taffy - each taking a bite and handing to the other. Which normally wouldn't bother me a bit, but as you may remember, Carly just got home from a 2 week stay at the Arkansas Children's Hospital Resort where she underwent surgery for a ruptured appendix.

Now I'm sure that she may still have some antibiotics going through her little body, but after what I have witnessed come from Camryn's nose ( and mouth, since she had the vomiting part of her illness yesterday ) the last thing I need to see is still-recovering Carly eating the same food that just touched Cami's lips. But, alas, the damage was already done, seeing as only a tiny-wrapper-covered bite remained in the package. I checked the clock, it was now 5:00 a.m. and my perfect Valentine's Day had begun.

And I wouldn't trade it for a thing.

Happy Valentine's Day to you - I hope yours will be just as enjoyable! :)

Christmas Shopping with the girls...

Sunday I tried to finish up some Christmas shopping at various stores before heading to Sams to pick up the grocery essentials. The girls were in rare form all morning and didn't want me to go without them, so I took them with me. Since the girls had missed their naps - this made the trip quite a noble undertaking on my part. Looking to get 'points' from Bill on successfully navigating 4 stores with two 3-yr olds in tow, I took a deep breath and headed out into the world. They were great at the first stores, only using "1 finger" to touch items and even staying in the cart and not arguing over who got to sit in the seat and who had to ride in the basket. I had a newfound confidence going into our last trip to Sams, especially since their fabulous new carts contain dual seats which always tickles the girls. It was approaching lunch time and I knew that dangling the snack bar pizza in front of them would help this trip also be a calm one.

So off we go into the world of Sams. The first thing they notice are the people handing out snacks! So after they each enjoy a taquito, a bite of cheesecake, a cookie and a drink of juice, we were sailing through the items on my list. Then we get stopped in the coffee aisle by a well-intentioned stranger who was insistent about carrying on a conversation with the girls. She was dressed in a full fur ( yes - real - I did manage to 'accidentally' brush against it ) and was just enchanted by the girls ( who isn't? )... So she asked them their names, how old they were, what they asked Santa for, etc., to which the girls just gave her the worst "Shay" looks they could. I could have convinced the woman that they didn't speak and she would have believed me. They clammed up so much and just gave her the "I don't know you - why are you talking to me" look. Don't get me wrong, being a parent this day and age I appreciate their hatred of strangers, but, when it's obviously a kind older woman, you would hope they might be a bit more likely to engage her in a bit of their precious conversation. Regardless, we spent almost 10 full minutes with this stranger and the girls' dirty looks. This is only important in the fact that if we had continued our quick and painless navigation of Sams, the ending might have been much different.

Carly finally manages a smile for the woman which appeases her and provides us our opportunity to continue shopping. As we round the corner, the girls are just as chatty as they had been before the stranger, but they seemed to slow down a bit. We even passed a cookie sample that they were no longer interested in. Then just as I load up on our bags of chips, I realized that I need to go back to the frozen food section, even further delaying their pizza lunch. Off we go, navigating in and out of the hordes of people there, and something happens. Camryn, who I thought was just looking at something on the floor, had laid her head down on the handle of the cart and just passed out asleep. Carly, not going to be outdone, proceeds to place her thumb in her mouth and do the same - only she doesn't like the hard hand rail and decides to use my arm as her pillow.

It was just precious - they both just went straight to sleep like they were home in bed. We were the talk of Sams as I pushed the sleeping cargo through the store. Though I was tempted by the thought to continue shopping for things I wanted to look at, or to dine like royalty (in absolute peace and quiet) at the snack bar, I decided to go straight to the register and check out so I could get my sleeping angels home. Once the 'receipt' checker realized what she thought was a pile of clothes was two children, we were on our way out into the cold, into the car and home to nap!

Hope all of your holiday shopping trips are as peaceful as ours... :)